Conus Regius
 

After 1.5 years of my tank being up and running with no new additions, i have found that all my bristle worms, snails, and most of my hermit crabs have disappeared. What lives there now is Oenone fulgida.

From what i have ready, these little guys will eat snails and hermit crabs so it makes sense, luckily they haven't taken out my turbo snail.....yet.


I also read that Conus Regius does a great job, non-selective yes, but a great job at removing these pest worms. However, i cannot find where to buy some anywhere online. does anyone know where i could grab one or two Crown Cone snails?


Thank you!

http://reeftopia.com/reefaquariumsnails.htm

At the bottom of the page. Did you write into WWM a few weeks back?

DO NOT mess with snails in the genus Conus, some are very very venomous. there is a species Conus geographus that can be fatal to humans.

bristleworms are not pests they are excellent detritvores.

Crown Cone
 

Olemiss: Thank you! no, this is my first posting somewhere about looking for them

Eymann: Look up the worm i posted, it is not a harmless cleaner, it is a predator and is not what you are thinking of when saying bristle worm.

Ah gotcha, didn't catch that, yes it is a baddie, Id setup some sort of trap before you risk getting harpooned by a cone snail.

C. regius strictly prey on polychaetes. Their venom is no where near as potent as their piscivorous cousins. I still wear thick gloves when handling them though...

Gotta be a better, easier to source way though, sure the venom may not be as deadly to most as the fish eating species of the conus genus are, but still some people could have bad reactions and potential anaphylactic shock , safer bet is to a safer means of control would be a trap. or the ol bait, nocturnal hunting game with some tongs.

OP do NOT get a cone snail to fix the problem.

You've obviously never had O. fulgidas. Traps aren't efficient enough, you'll never catch one with tongs.

I've had fulgidas in two tanks. Tank #1- I essentially hit reset- drained tank, replaced all rock and sand. cleaned out sump and plumbing. Fulgida free but a massive pita and somewhat expensive replacing all sand and rock.

Tank #2- Added 2 C regius and let them hunt. The first couple of mornings the cones were covered in the fulgidas tell tale mucus. Thought the worms got the upper hand on the snail. Put on gloves to remove it and sure enough the cone was still kicking. They've been in there a few months now. Haven't seen a single fulgida during red light inspections and traps are pulling nothing but E. complanata.

One of mine
http://atkznc5wag90b2j1y2tldc5jb200....Bn/$/$/$/$/$/$

It's not getting through these gloves--
http://atkznc5wag90b2j1y2tldc5jb200....Bn/$/$/$/$/$/$

No I havent had that worm, but getting the cone snail species mixed up can be a bad deal, using a cone snail is definitely crafty but I would never recommend someone to get one unless they are experienced, lets say the source mis IDs one and you don't notice its, say C. geographus? you could end up in serious trouble, not to mention they can weaponize insulin and kill all your fish.

re
 

olemiss, did you get yours through the site that you posted for me? I am curious about the quality and consistency from that shop but am ready to buy one!

Yep. I've ordered from them numerous times and never had any problems. They called me when I ordered the cone to make sure I knew the dangers. He said they primarily sell them to research institutions but was all too familiar with the fulgida and understood why I needed them.

Just want to make sure you guys know there are species in the conus genus that can be extremely medically significant if you get harpooned, one species that I mentioned before that is a fish eating species has such a powerful, fast acting venom that it can supposedly put a person into cardiac arrest in less than a few mins, hence why locals call it the cigarette snail. Really need to be careful when dealing with this genus.

The fish eating species of this genus can be deadly, which makes sense, this is a snail that eats fish primarily but it is a slow moving snail, so nature/evolution equipped it with a very fast acting potent neurotoxin that acts very rapidly, it can paralyze your diaphragm and heart very quickly.
Like I said crafty way of natural control if you get the correct species, if you are supplied the wrong one and are not adept at conus sp. ID you could be setting yourself up for a very dangerous, potentially life threatening situation.
Please be very cautious using this method of natural eradication, do not recommend to those with little experience.

My .02

Eymann -

I am well aware of other cone snails and their toxicity. I have housed fish too that are toxic such as lion fish, when i had a larger tank. While their poison isnt as dangerous as the cone youre talking about, they do present a much higher risk as you can move something and get stung where as with the snail, you have to be near it and its quite easy to see.

As some who has been tagged while bagging up a lionfish before, I agree. I was just throwing it out there that snails of the genus Conus, demand respect.

Definitely learned a few things in this thread though, love utiliziing predation to get rid of pests.

Conus vexillum, an Indo-Pacific species, will eat them also. I'm not sure they're readily available though.

olemiss - do you know of anywhere else that would sell conus regius? That shop has a $40 shipping fee for getting something sent here.

that's the only site I've them listed but the Caribbean vendors should be able to collect them. Try asking the guys at divertom.com

Eta: where are you located? Think I was only charged 18 shipping to Louisiana

Thats most likely the problem, i live in Wyoming and there are no real big cities in wyoming at all.

Olemiss-

It’s been a while, I just went to buy a cone finally and noticed they are conus spurius, not conus regius. Has that changed? Do you know the difference?

Conus spurius won't work for your purposes, most likely. Do you still have the eunicid in the tank?

Not a eunicid worm, fulgida worms. And yes, those tickets are still there

Tickets = ****ers

Also, turns out they are getting more conus regius, just waiting for better weather to harvest them

Have you actually gotten a good enough look at it to determine that it is Oenone fulgida? Most of the big worms that I've seen taken out of aquaria are big eunicids instead of actual O. fulgida. The behavior is about the same.

(and if you have a monster O. fulgida, a Conus regius isn't likely to fix that)

I have absolutely confirmed they are fulgida. I’ve caught a few by hand and trap before and identified them by certain features like face shape and legs. I’ve only seen one that was large and it’s been a while. I also accidentally cut it in half while trying to catch it so it’s not alive anymore from what I can tell but there are plenty of them left.